WGN TV reported tonight that former Chicago sportscaster Bill Frink has passed away at age 78. I remember him from when I was a kid as part of the "happy talk" Channel 7 news with Flynn, Daly, and John Coleman.

Lip Man 1

07-05-2005, 10:39 PM

By the time he got to WGN he was butchering names almost as badly as 'Sickening' Sid Garcia would do in the mid 80's!

Still sorry to hear this.

Lip

Dick Allen

07-05-2005, 10:39 PM

WGN TV reported tonight that former Chicago sportscaster Bill Frink has passed away at age 78. I remember him from when I was a kid as part of the "happy talk" Channel 7 news with Flynn, Daly, and John Coleman.I remember when he went off to NY for a gig, but didn't last long out there. He wasn't exactly the most exciting sportscaster, but knew his stuff. Too bad.

TornLabrum

07-05-2005, 11:26 PM

Sad to hear. RIP, Bill. I imagine from what I'm hearing and reading that it won't be long before we'll be having to say that for another veteran of Channel 7 (and 2 and 9), John Drury, who is apparently in pretty bad shape now with Lou Gehrig's disease.

FedEx227

07-05-2005, 11:41 PM

In the words of great Henry Rowengartner

"Oh my god... its Billy FRICK!"

SOXSINCE'70

07-06-2005, 10:35 AM

Bill Frink was the first TV sportscaster I watched with regularity.
Growing up in the late 60's/early 70's,I came of age in the era
of "happy talk" news.I knew it was near to dinner time when I heard
the phrase "How do you do,ladies and gentlemen;i'm Fahey Flynn".

Bill Frink was the one tv sports guy whose every word I hung on.
Especially whenever the Sox were involved.

My favorite early sports radio guy was Rrrrrrrrred Mottlow.
God,I miss WCFL. 'MVP is good,but I grew up in an era
when the most important thing to me (outside of the Sox)
was the release of a new single by any ex-Beatle.

dickallen15

07-06-2005, 11:14 AM

By the time he got to WGN he was butchering names almost as badly as 'Sickening' Sid Garcia would do in the mid 80's!

Still sorry to hear this.

Lip

Sid Garcia was the worst. He reported results of boxing matches shown on ESPN. Unfortunately, Sid didn't know the fights were from 15 years previous. He didn't learn his lesson the first time, he actually did this twice. Perhaps the worst sportscaster in Chicago television history.

Lip Man 1

07-06-2005, 12:47 PM

Dick:

It gets better. I was working in TV in Louisiana at the time and wrote the WGN news director talking about Sickening Sid. I didn't let him know I was in TV because I didn't want him to automatically assume I was trying for a job.

He wrote me back and I'll never forget his line, "Mr. Garcia knows his limitations and is working on correcting them..." He also stated that, "It might interest you to know that Mr. Garcia stood out the highest among audience recognition in our studies."

When I got up off the floor I wrote him back stating along the lines of, 'Chicago is the 3rd largest market in the nation, guys shouldn't have to be working on correcting limitations in that size market.' And that the reason audiences remembered him is because 'he is so bad!'

I never heard back from him.

The other thing I used to remember about Sickening Sid is that you could tell he wasn't comfortable ad libbing. When he'd get in a pinch he reverted back to his catch phrases. The most used one...'check it out...' Trouble was he'd use that four or five times in a four minute segment!

How or why he was even considered for hiring is beyond my comprehension and I spent 15 years in TV.

Lip

Dick Allen

07-06-2005, 01:02 PM

Dick:

It gets better. I was working in TV in Louisiana at the time and wrote the WGN news director talking about Sickening Sid. I didn't let him know I was in TV because I didn't want him to automatically assume I was trying for a job.

He wrote me back and I'll never forget his line, "Mr. Garcia knows his limitations and is working on correcting them..." He also stated that, "It might interest you to know that Mr. Garcia stood out the highest among audience recognition in our studies."

When I got up off the floor I wrote him back stating along the lines of, 'Chicago is the 3rd largest market in the nation, guys shouldn't have to be working on correcting limitations in that size market.' And that the reason audiences remembered him is because 'he is so bad!'

I never heard back from him.

The other thing I used to remember about Sickening Sid is that you could tell he wasn't comfortable ad libbing. When he'd get in a pinch he reverted back to his catch phrases. The most used one...'check it out...' Trouble was he'd use that four or five times in a four minute segment!

How or why he was even considered for hiring is beyond my comprehension and I spent 15 years in TV.